RSN launches video series on refugee rights and COVID19

The COVID19 pandemic has had far-reaching implications for all human mobility. Refugees and asylum-seekers, a special group within the global migration context who are forced to leave their homes for fear of serious harm or persecution, are confronting harsh new realities.

Many governments have sealed borders and closed down services. Governments certainly must take measures to protect public health, but a number of questions emerge about how such measures can be balanced with international human rights commitments. Governments have obligations toward new arrivals fleeing danger as well as those refugees and asylum-seekers who are already in host countries.

RSN’s new video series seeks to engage these questions and offer recommendations for a constructive way forward, both in how we think about refugees and how we take actions. RSN stresses that principles of asylum must not be abandoned and that refugees and other forced migrants must not be left behind as we emerge from the pandemic. RSN will be using the series and the messages contained in them while engaging our network and stakeholders as we emerge from the pandemic.